Mirror, Mirror, on the wall...
Your wedding day is special, and you want to look special on that day! Make-up can be used to conceal or highlight features and should be carefully planned. Whether you use very light or no make-up on a daily basis, or use everything from foundation to mascara, changes may have to be made on that day. You will be photographed and videotaped all day, maybe in different light (from a daytime ceremony into an evening reception) so your make-up has to accommodate these changes and hold up under photography lighting, stress and heat.
Once you decide if you want to hire a professional make-up artist (which we recommend!), apply your own make-up, have a friend do it, you need to decide on a color palette that you feel comfortable with. Some brides that usually use earth tones on a daily basis may elect to use a bright red lipstick on their wedding day to add that pop of color to their face, or use eyeliner and a smoky eye shadow to accent their eyes through their veil.
Log on the internet to look for some looks, and then present your ideas to your make-up artist so that they know what look you want to achieve. Some make-up artists go on “automatic” and try to make-up every bride the same so make sure you know what you want.
Ask if the make-up artists will stay through the ceremony to reapply make-up before your formal portrait session begins. This can be especially important if your skin is oily or if you sweat a lot. All of this will show in your wedding portraits. Although this can be retouched out of your photos later, it adds a cost to your photography package to do so. Also, plan to buy at least the lipstick that they will use that day so that you can retouch throughout the reception, where you will be taking more photos. Have your maid-of-honor hold your make-up close by so that she can help you when needed.
Try before you buy! I recommend you try your make-up artist before your actual wedding day. We recommend doing this for your engagement portrait session. This will enable you to see if you like how they work, if they listen to your wishes, how the final product looks, and how long it lasts. Although wedding make-up on the day of can start at $150 and go up, make-up for an engagement portrait should cost around $50-75.
Weddings by Peace and Sidney (www.peaceandsidney.wix.com/weddings) and Sidney & Company (www.sidneyandcompany.com) have make-up options in all of our packages.
Challenges:
Don’t try anything too different on your wedding day – you may hate how your photos look!
If you plan to change your make-up routine, do it in advance and have photos taken with it so that you can see how it will look.
Select a make-up artists that can also do your engagement portrait session at a reasonable cost to enable you to “try before you buy”.
If you plan to do your own make-up, or have a friend do it, also use your engagement portrait session as a “test” – photos show areas that may need more or a different type of make-up (to conceal or for oily skin) than you are presently using.
Preferred Vendor:
Kirk Bell, Make-Up Artist
Mr. Bell provides engagement portrait and wedding day make-up for the bride, groom, mothers and wedding party and has provided services to many Sidney & Company clients. Special package rates apply. Please contact Sidney & Company for rates and availability.
